Dazed and Confused
by Trunks lil' sis
Summary: Kurt had no idea how he'd gotten there, lying on the floor, chilled, and staring up at the faces of his fellow Glee Club members.


**Dazed And Confused**

****

Title: Dazed And Confused

Summary: Kurt is a little dazed and confused, but he's got people looking out for him.

Author: Jen

Rating: PG

Notes: Unadulterated smoop in the form of hurt/comfort

* * *

"I have to admit," Kurt confessed, blinking up at the worried faces of his Glee club, "I have no idea what just happened."

He really didn't, but his neck hurt, and so did his back. His limbs felt heavy, it seemed to be a little hard to breathe, and he was tired. Very tired.

"Dude," Puck said, forehead wrinkling. "You went full-blown Exorcist on us."

"Don't call me dude." Kurt reached a hand up to rub at his forehead. He had a headache and it was making the bright lights of the room nearly unbearable.

"Kurt." Mercedes came into view, her warm face very welcomed. "Are you okay?"

Cold. Kurt realized he was cold, too. "Fine."

There was a hand on his shoulder, Kurt realized, and a moment later he registered the fact that Finn was kneeling next to him, one hand braced against his shirt and the other cupping the back of his neck. It was … weird, to say the least. He and Finn, ever since the blowout in the basement, had been on shaky terms. They had a truce going, under the full knowledge that it was likely their parents were going to get married and they'd end up brothers by law, but they'd both been very careful to manage a respectable amount of space between them. And there had been no touching like the kind Finn was doing.

"Exorcist," Puck remarked again. "So awesome."

"I'm confused," Kurt said, trying to sit up.

Immediately Finn was pushing him back down on the ground. "I think you should stay down. You could have a broken neck."

Kurt gave his feet a wiggle and arched an eyebrow. "I'm fine. Really. Just … what happened, and please attempt to refrain from using movie examples."

Puck took a step away and said a bit gruffly, "He sounds fine to me. Back to bitching in two point five seconds."

"Shut it," Finn snapped at him, then told Kurt kindly, "but you did have a total freakout."

"Mr. Shue is calling an ambulance," Artie volunteered helpfully, his face not visible to Kurt from his position. In a lot of ways he was glad at least some of the Glee members were backing off. Kurt was pretty sure the last thing he could deal with at the moment was Rachel's face, or Quinn's sarcasm.

Then the words registered and against Finn's hand he pressed upward and demanded, "What? Ambulance?"

Finn hooked an arm around Kurt's shoulders and anchored him as Kurt swayed dizzily. "Be careful," Finn urged.

"I find this exceedingly touching," Kurt told Finn dryly, "but I don't need a ambulance. I'm fine. Just get me to my feet." He was feeling better by the second, and the looks of concern from his friends were quickly turning suffocating. Plus, Tina seemed as if she could cry at any moment.

Mercedes pressed the back of her hand to Kurt's forehead, noting, "Boy, you're whiter than the white on your Cheerio's uniform. And you're not fine, Kurt. You had a seizure."

Mouth dry, Kurt stumbled to ask, "What did you say? I had a seizure?"

"It came out of nowhere," Rachel said, finally sliding into Kurt's line of sight. "Do you remember anything? From before the seizure?"

"Did you have a vision?" Brittany's flat voice cut through the quiet murmuring that had started. Kurt only stared blankly at her as she defended, "It looked like you were. When do I die?"

Kurt took a long breath and slid his fingers through his hair. "I don't remember anything," he told Rachel. "I … what was I doing?"

The pressure of Finn's hand at the back of his neck continued to be a comforting sensation and Kurt had to work hard not to push back into it. He was so confused.

Artie dared to wheel a bit closer. "We were getting our assignments. You just starting talking in gibberish. Then you fell to the ground. It was very scary."

Kurt nodded numbly. "Gibberish."

Sounding more concerned than Kurt would have expected from him, Puck said, "You were speaking in tongues, or something like that. We thought you were going insane. Too much of that girly hairspray."

Mercedes cupped the side of Kurt's face and said, "Finn practically saved you from face planting."

"You saved me?" Kurt asked a bit dazed. Suddenly he wasn't feeling better. The room was starting to blur a bit and he was getting more confident that he was going to blow chunks.

Looking bashful, Finn said, "I was just the closest to you, and it's not like you weight anything. I caught you easy."

"Thanks," Kurt mumbled to him, and if he'd been feeling even the slightest bit better he would have been more appreciative, and maybe a bit thrilled. His crush on Finn was nearly dead, and he'd long since come to terms with resigning himself to regarding Finn as a brother, but there was still a little part of him who envisioned Finn as his knight. "Can I lay back down?"

"Kurt?" Rachel asked, worry marring her voice. "Kurt, the ambulance is coming. You should try and remain calm. My dads made me take a class on what to do in these kinds of situations. It's imperative that you don't-"

After that, Kurt felt his body tense up and it was only Finn's grip on him that kept him grounded. He felt his teeth grind together and the only thing Kurt wanted, more than the tensing to stop, was for his dad to be there in that moment. The pain was becoming intense, and Finn's grip was suddenly too tight.

"Kurt!"

He gasped, arching up, and then deflated into nothingness.

It was the smell that woke Kurt. He hated the too clean smell of hospitals. He was actually very partial to the smell of cleaning products, and excised the use of them quite frequently in his house, but there was a difference in hospitals. The too clean smell in hospitals was meant to hide the stench of death, and not a lack of cleanliness.

A calloused hand was pressing over his forehead, fingers brushing his hair and Kurt would have known the touch anywhere.

"Dad?" he asked, mouth feeling like it was full of cotton balls. His tongue was sticky and felt too big for his mouth. "What?"

"I'm here," his dad assured, Burt leaning over Kurt's figure on the hospital bed. "I'm right here, Kurt."

Blinking his eyes open Kurt was able to take in the pulled features of his father's face. He looked tired, and worried, and all the things Kurt never wanted his father to look. Kurt didn't need to ask if his father had been sitting by his bed for an unseemly amount of time.

"What happened?" Kurt asked. It was hard to remember … hard to remember much of anything, actually. There were large pieces of his memory missing. He could recall breakfast with his father that morning, and driving to school. There was half of History class in his mind, and then the vague notion of recalling the faces of his Glee club, but nothing after that, or in-between.

Burt gave a heavy sigh and responded, "You had a seizure in Glee today." He rubbed a hand over his face and Kurt could see how dark it was outside. Today clearly meant much earlier. Kurt wondered how late it was.

"A seizure?" Kurt shook his head slowly, noticing the IV line imbedded in the back of his hand. "I had a seizure?"

"And then a follow-up ," Burt clarified. "You … I got the call at the shop, kid, and I was really worried."

"Sorry," Kurt found himself mumbling, feeling so sleepy. "Didn't mean it."

The hand at Kurt's forehead lifted and Kurt missed it right away.

"I know," his father whispered. "And I love you. Get some rest. I'll be here."

Kurt hummed a little, wanting to complain about the starchy feel of the hospital sheets between his legs. Then, the feeling of his father's lips brushing his forehead in a chaste kiss was all that mattered, and Kurt could sleep easy.

The seizure, and the heavy tremors that had followed, had happened on Friday. Kurt had spent the sub-sequential days afterward in and out of the hospital, finding himself being treated for things he hadn't wanted to think of at the time. It had been worse, though, of this Kurt was certain, for his dad. His father had remained steadfast in his resolve to stay with Kurt for the duration of each and every test, and all of the time in-between them. He frequently squeezed Kurt's hand tightly, kissed his forehead, and promised not to let anything happen to him. Burt, Kurt understood, was painfully aware that he could not survive loosing the last member of his family.

On Monday Kurt went back to school. He took easy but confident steps down the hallway he was most frequently slushied and kept a close lookout for any of his usual tormenters. But when he reached his locker and found it surprising clear, of jocks and graffiti, he was even more nervous.

So he may have jumped a little when Puck said from behind him, "Still in one piece, princess?"

"Don't be a tool, Noah," Kurt said, placing an emphasis on the football player's given name. "And yes, thank you for your concern, as facetious as it sounded. I'm perfectly fine."

"The last time you said you were fine you had a seizure," Puck pointed out. "So shouldn't you be at home, giving yourself a manicure or something?"

There was a weird edge to Puck's voice, undeniable concern, and Kurt appreciated it, even if his tentative friend couldn't actually vocalize the more expected words. "I was completely cleared by my doctor to be here today," Kurt told him. "I need to take it easy for a while, but I am fine."

Puck thrust his hands into his letterman's jacket and said, "Well, good, because your sissy voice would be too hard to replace."

It was hours later before he let Quinn and Rachel pull him into the nearest ladies room and whisper in his ear that Puck had put the jocks of the school under specific instructions to completely ignore him.

"He said he'd personally close a locker door on the head of the first person who threw something on you, knocked you around, or hurt you in any way," Rachel swore. "From Puck that's like a declaration of love." Quinn nodded emphatically.

Throughout the day Kurt received well wishes and desperate demands for updates on his condition from all of his friends, and even people he hadn't know even cared about him. But the one person who'd remained oddly distant from him was Finn, and by the end of his last class he was the one person Kurt was dying to talk to.

As it turned out, his dad had forbidden him from driving.

"Not right now," Burt had said earlier that morning, confiscating the keys from Kurt's hands. "Not until we're sure. I'll take you and pick you up, okay, buddy?"

His father's paranoia was the reason Kurt was standing in front of the school, watching for his father's familiar truck. It was also the reason he finally ran into Finn.

"Kurt?"

Finn had seemingly come out of nowhere and Kurt responded, "Hey, Finn."

Finn seemed agitated, or maybe just restless, with the jock it was often hard to tell. But eventually, with more than enough awkward silence between them, Finn said, "My mom talked to your dad. She said you're doing better?"

Kurt nodded. "Infinitely better. I daresay I'm back to normal, with the addition of this." He reached for his sleeve and pulled it up, revealing a shiny, metal bracelet. Kurt insisted, "I talked my dad into letting me decorate it later today. Then maybe it won't look so bad." The medical symbol on the top of the alert bracelet did seem to clash with Kurt's features.

"So … do you have that thing?" Finn asked. When Kurt looked at him blankly, Finn elaborated, "That thing where you have seizures."

Kurt shrugged. "I may be epileptic. It's still too soon to tell. Epilepsy can become prevalent without provocation in teenagers, but until we know, I'm stuck wearing this garish thing. And my dad doesn't want me driving until all of my test results come back. So I'm back to feeling like a freshman. I guess the feeling matches my boyish charms."

Finn looked a bit helpless and Kurt wondered if he'd said too much too fast. One could never fully judge with Finn's brain when there was going to be a lag.

"I wanted to thank you," Kurt told Finn, giving him an honest smile. "I talked to Mercedes. She said you already told me once, but I had another fit and I didn't remember. She did, though, and she said you caught me, and you stopped me from face planting on the ground. You got me down safely and you held me still until the seizure stopped. The doctors told me you probably helped me avoid hurting myself. So I want to thank you for knowing what to do."

"I didn't," Finn said honestly, a hand rubbing at the back of his head. "I was just there, and I may not be smart, but I've got awesome reflexes. You were easy to catch."

"All the same," Kurt offered, "thank you."

Finn shifted on his feet and said, "No problem. We're like … kind of like brothers, right?"

"I did see your mother with a bridal magazine," Kurt teased.

"What?" Finn blanched.

"Never mind." A horn beeped and Kurt waved at his father. "That's dad."

Kurt moved towards the truck but stopped short as Finn snagged his sleeve, his fingers brushing over the medical alert bracelet. "Can you ask your dad if you guys will come over for dinner tonight? Mom wants to throw you a celebratory dinner, or whatever."

"Kurt? Finn?"

At his father's voice, Kurt assured Finn, "I'm sure we'll be there tonight. Make sure you tell your mother I have a peanut allergy. That last thing I want to do is end up dying of asphyxiation."

Finn stared on a bit bluntly as Kurt raced to the truck and climbed in.

"You looked pretty buddy-buddy with Finn there," Burt remarked to his son. "Mending some bridges?"

Kurt shrugged a little, watching as Finn headed off towards the student parking lot. "There may be hope for him after all."

To be honest, Kurt wasn't sure what had just happened, in fact he had no idea, but after that, things seemed easier. Better. The medical alert bracelet remained on his wrist, the jocks of the school continued to verbally taunt him, but Kurt hadn't been slushied or gone dumpster diving since. And his relationship with Finn improved in leaps and bounds, even if Finn's newfound protective urges with him became smothering two days in.

Maybe there was something to the idea of being confused over the entire situation. Kurt was just going to go with the flow. After all, it seemed to work fine for Finn, and if it was good enough for his almost, sort of, close enough brother, then it was good and well enough for Kurt.


End file.
